“I have decided to leave my functions and all my duties from this moment”.
Facing the camera, alone, with a coronavirus protection mask hiding half his face, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta announced his resignation around midnight on Tuesday night.
His speech, filmed in an office in the Soundiata-Keïta military camp in Kati, was broadcast on ORTM, the national television, with a chyron marked: “outgoing President of the Republic”.
Dissolution of the National Assembly
Affirming that he has “brought life” to the Malian army since coming to power in 2013, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta (IBK) also returned to the “various demonstrations” of recent months, judging that “the worst has come” from the protest movement demanding his departure.
READ MORE The events that led to the resignation of IBK
“If today it pleased some elements of our armed forces to conclude that it had to end with their intervention, do I really have a choice? “said IBK, before stating that he had agreed to “submit to it, because I do not want any blood to be shed to keep me in power”.
“This is why I would like at this precise moment, while thanking the Malian people for their support throughout these long years and the warmth of their affection, to tell you my decision to leave my functions, all my functions, from this moment on”, he said.
Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta also announced “all the legal consequences” of his forced resignation: “The dissolution of the National Assembly and that of the government”.
Creation of a “National Committee for the Salvation of the People”.
The military who seized power and forced Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta to resign announced the creation of a “National Committee for the Salvation of the People” and affirmed their intention to put in place a civilian political transition leading to elections “within a reasonable period of time”.
They also gave assurances of their intention to respect international agreements, while many countries expressed concern about the situation in Bamako.
READ MORE Mali: ‘Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta is still my brother’, says Mahmoud Dicko
The Malian president was arrested Tuesday evening at his Sebenikoro residence, in the company of Prime Minister Boubou Cissé, at the end of a coup d’état that began with a mutiny that broke out in the morning at the Soundiata-Keïta military camp in Kati, 15 km from Bamako.
As the ministries were evacuated and the Pustchist military took up positions in front of the capital’s main official buildings, several hundred people gathered on Place de l’Indépendance, the epicentre of the protest initiated by the Mouvement du 5 juin-Rassemblement des forces patriotiques du Mali (M5-RFP), showing their support for the military.
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